The heartbroken aunt of the teenager set on hearth and fatally stabbed inside of a Bronx rental construction this week introduced a GoFundMe web page to lend a hand duvet funeral bills for her nephew, who she stated was once “brutally murdered by way of cowards.”
Winston Ortiz, 18, was once stabbed thrice after which doused with gas and set on hearth with a fit at the 5th ground of a construction on Woodycrest Street close to West 165th Boulevard in Highbridge round three p.m. Wednesday, police officers stated.
The teenager’s grieving aunt, Victoria Ortiz, who lives in Virginia Seashore, posted about his loss of life on Fb Wednesday night time and pleaded with pals to proportion the circle of relatives’s fundraising web page.
“These days we discovered our oldest nephew was once brutally murdered in NY,” she wrote. “He fought laborious for his lifestyles till he may just now not battle and gave up the ghost this night time. I’m begging all of my pals to proportion our GoFundMe as no guardian must outlive their kid let on my own concern about the best way to pay for funeral preparations. My center is so damaged into items and past consoling. Please pray for our circle of relatives and particularly for my brother and sister in-law.”
At the fundraising web page, Victoria Ortiz stated Winston was once attacked “after leaving his house to head see a chum.”
She described her nephew as “cherished by way of all who got here to understand him.”
“He was once lively in his church and a job style for all of his more youthful brothers and cousins,” she wrote. “He was once sure for greatness.”
He’s survived by way of each folks, his two more youthful brothers, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, she added.
To this point, the fundraiser has reached $1,878 of its $10,000 function.